BLACKPINK
BLACKPINK (Hangul: 블랙핑크; stylized as BLACKPINK or BLΛƆKPIИK) is the latest girl group to come out of YG, debuting in 2016, 7 years after 2NE1. They were formed to be the "pretty" and "softer" version of their senior girl group. (See; YGverse). As of 2019 they are the only girl group under YG, and also the most succesful one, due to BIGBANG's army enlisment. Pre-debut (2011 - 2016) Yang Hyun Suk first mentioned creating a new girl group, back in November of 2011. Following him mentioning a new girl group in the making (Nov 8), on the 21st, YG posted a teaser picture about a trainee, named Kim Eunbi, who was set to debut with the girls. Jennie became a trainee in August of 2010. Making her the first among the now-members to join the agency. Lisa signed to be a trainee in September/October of 2010, after she placed 1st at the YG auditions held in Thailand. Jisoo became a trainee at YG in July of 2011. She explained in an interview, that every one in her family likes to sing, so she wanted to became a singer. Rosé was the last one to become a trainee, as she joined the agency in May of 2012, after passing the auditions in Australia. On the 6th of April 2012, a video of two trainees, Kim Eunbi and Kim Euna was posted. Later both of them got dropped from the girl group. Slowly the original line-up of 7 girls decreased to 5. On the 10th, a picture of Jennie was posted under the caption 'Who's that girl?'. The first picture of Jisoo was revelead on 4th May of 2012, under the caption "Who's that girl?". A few days later, on the 11th a video and picture of Lisa was posted as well, again using the caption 'Who's that girl?'. August 29th, a video of Jennie is posted on the official YG channel. In the video they revelead her name, age and the languages she speaks.In the video the also used the original name of the group, which was PinkPunk. August 31st, Jennie stars in the music video of G-Dragon, for his song 'That XX'.Reports back then claim that the girls were set to debut that year on September with more than 7 members but for unknown reasons was pushed back January 2013. YG started 2013 by naming Mystery Girl #2 from the black and white teaser photo as Kim Jisoo. The agency revealed her as the second official member of the upcoming girl group along with 2 new photos. A few days after, a new practice video of Jennie Kim was unveiled to the public. In the video, Jennie is seen sing-rapping to Lotus Flower Bomb by Wale feat. Miguel. Moreover, Jennie was featured on “Special”, a track from Lee Hi’s first full-length album. Though the girls were supposed to debut early that year, YG later announced another postponement through “FROM YG” on June 19. He said that they are planning to debut the girls on October 2013 with the remaining 6 members adopting an unconventional debut promotion. He further disclosed that the members are multilingual who are fluent in Korean, English and Japanese. Unfortunately, Kim Euna dropped out and left the agency before the supposed debut. Regardless of the delay that year, the revealed members were still seen on some of YG artists’ projects. For one, Jennie continued to lend her voice to her seniors – this time to Big Bang’s Seungri for the song, “GG BE’ and G-Dragon’s “Black” for their respective comebacks. She even had a chance to perform live, predebut, on music shows to promote “Black”. It was in 2014 when we first saw Lisa as a product endorser when she joined iKON’s B.I. and Bobby in modelling for YG’s clothing line, Nonagon/Nona9on. In addition that year, Jisoo took part in Epik High’s “Spoiler” + “Happen Ending” music video and acted as a couple with iKON’s Bobby on HISUHYUN’s “I’m Different” music video. It was also revealed then that Kpopstar contestant, Jang Hanna, joined YG with the possibility of her joining the new girl group which was reportedly to be making a debut on November 2014. Sadly, Kim Eunbi withdraws from the group due to health reasons. 2015 is no doubt Kim Jisoo’s year! Jisoo has landed 4 endorsements that year! She had promotional shoots and commercial filmings for various products and services namely, Samsonite Red, Nikon, AngelStone, Smart Uniform. She even had the opportunity to be on print and tv with Hallyu star Lee Minho and labelmate group, iKON. Jisoo has also cameo-ed with YG Fam actors, Kang Seungyoon and Sandara Park on KBS’ drama, “The Producers”, as fictional regular casts of KBS’ variety show, “2 Days, 1 Night”. Early 2016, Lisa and Jisoo continued to impress us with their amazing visuals through Nonagon and Smart Uniform. Adding to the growing list of Jisoo’s endorsements is LG Mobiles’s Stylus2 & X Series with iKON. As soon as the summer heat of 2016 was felt, YG once again hyped fans by announcing that the new girl group is finally going to debut on July with Teddy, YG’s resident producer, leading the production of the girls’ debut repertoire. It was also reported that international choreographers and high-quality directors were involved in the upcoming girl group’s debut preparation and promotion. YGE has also debunked the idea of previously revealed YG trainees, Jang Hanna and Moon Sua, joining the group. The members of the group was said to be revealed one by one every week starting on June 1 2016. Jennie was first and YG posted 7 photos of her, each conveying different concepts and expressions. Next was Lisa with photos highlighting her slender body and long legs. On June 15, it was Jisoo’s turn exuding with sweet and innocent aura. Last but certainly not the least, Rosé’s photo teasers were unveiled along with the information that she’s a Korean who was born and raised in Australia. YG also confirmed that she was the featured singer on G-Dragon’s 2012 track, “”결국” (In The End/Without You). A week following that, on June 29th, YG revealed that the group is complete and is named “BLACKPINK”, a name to mean that the group is not just pretty visuals but also talented individuals. It was further explained that while “PINK” is described to be feminine and pretty, the group’s visual is not only what they have to offer as the “BLACK” at the front of their name symbolizes a premium meaning like that of specially labelled products suggesting the members are talented as well. Ahead of the debut, YGE posted onto BLACKPINK’s official Youtube channel a dance practice video of the group covering Parris Geobel & The Royal Family’s choreography to Rihanna’s “B**** Better Have My Money”. Furthermore, BLACKPINK opened their official Instagram account and Facebook page. On the 29th of July, YG announced their debut date to be 888, August 8th at 8PM KST along with a teaser photo followed by reports that BLACKPINK has completed filming 3 music videos and that Teddy already finished the upcoming girl group’s debut album after 2 years of preparation. It was August 3 when YGE started its countdown to BLACKPINK’s debut. Individual and group photos were uploaded on YG’s official blog site containing phrases like IN YOUR AREA” and “SQUARE ONE”. The agency also said that the upcoming girl group will debut with 2 singles showcasing them for the first time through Naver VLive/VApp on August 8 at 3pm KST. The girls will have their debut stage on SBS Inkigayo on August 14. Finally, on August 5, revealed one of its debut singles, “BOOMBAYAH”, a song produced and written by Teddy with the help of Bekah Boom. This song’s music video is directed by Seo Hyun Seung who is behind 2NE1’s “I Am The Best”, “Fire” and “I Love You” as well as Big Bang’s “Fantastic Baby” music videos. Four renowned foreign choreographers have also participated in creating the moves for BLACKPINK’s debut single/performance. The group was previously rumored to be named Dream/Dreamers, TLC-F (combination of International pop group TLC and 1st generation female Kpop group Fin.K.L), and Pink Punk (as seen on Jennie Kim’s trainee practice video) at some point in time. It was also revealed in the past that there were at least 10 to a dozen girls vying to be part of the so-called “YG SNSD”. Also, as seen on Lisa’s first video teaser (Who’s That Girl???: The 5th), there were about 7 female trainees dancing in the background with Eunbi, Euna and Jennie clearly spotted. Initially, from 10-12, it has shrunk to 6, then to 4 as we know now. Reports back then say that G-Dragon will be the main producer of the group and just recently there were news published that he produced a song or two for them too. 2016 Debut, first comeback Blackpink was the first girl group to debut under YG Entertainment in six years after 2NE1, with their debut single album Square One, which was released on August 8, 2016. The two lead singles charted at number one and two on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, and Blackpink is the fastest act to do so and the third Korean artist or group to hold the top two positions after label mates Psy and Big Bang. "Whistle" topped the digital, download, streaming, and mobile charts on Gaon in August 2016. They also reached number one on the weekly, popularity, music video, and K-pop music video charts of China's biggest music-streaming website QQ Music. Blackpink's first music show performance was aired on August 14, 2016 on SBS' Inkigayo. They won first place on Inkigayo 13 days after their debut, and broke the record for the shortest time for a girl group to win on a music program after their debut. They wrapped up their promotions for Square One on September 11, 2016 with another win on Inkigayo. Blackpink released their second single album Square Two with the lead singles "Playing with Fire" and "Stay" on November 1, 2016. The songs were produced by Teddy Park with R. Tee and Seo Won Jin. They performed their comeback stage on Inkigayo on November 6 and on Mnet's M Countdown on November 10, 2016. "Playing with Fire" was their second single to hit number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart. In South Korea, "Playing with Fire" peaked at no. 3 while "Stay" managed to reach the 10th spot. Blackpink's commercial success in their first five months earned them several rookie awards at major Korean year-end music award shows, including the Asia Artist Awards, Melon Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, Seoul Music Awards, and Gaon Chart Music Awards. Additionally, Billboard named them one of the best new K-pop groups of 2016. 2017 As If It's Your Last, Japanese debut On January 17, Blackpink named their fan club "Blink", a portmanteau of "Black" and "Pink". On June 22, The group released a digital single titled "As If It's Your Last". The song was described as a "mixed genre of music", a change of sound from their previous releases. The song debuted at number one on Billboard's World Digital Song chart dated June 22 after only one day of tracking, making it their third number one hit on the chart. The music video for the song later went on to break the record for the most liked music video by a Korean girl group on YouTube. On July 20, 2017, Blackpink held a showcase at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. It had an attendance of more than 14,000 people and it was reported that around 200,000 people tried to get tickets for it. The group made their Japanese debut on August 30, 2017, with the release of their self-titled Japanese extended play. Blackpink was ranked among YouTube's Global Top 25 Songs of the Summer for 2017, with their single "As If It's Your Last". 2018